Halloween Update

I’m writing this blog to you all from the Huntsman Cancer Institute, where I have once again been admitted as a patient. You may or may not be familiar with the circumstances, but a chronic pain in my abdomen which has spread to what feels like my back, pancreas and stomach, has become rather unbearable over the last several weeks. The difficult part of it all is that despite the tests my doctors have done, each one has thus far come up inconclusive. It’s good news in that they can’t detect anything severely wrong with my system, but it’s anguishing to know that something you are experiencing on a very visceral, tangible level isn’t understood by anyone here. The answers up until now have relied mostly on heavy duty painkillers that can be administered orally. Unfortunately, over the last four or five days my stomach’s developed such a sensitivity that I’ve had a hard time keeping the pills down, or even food and water for that matter. Saturday night the pain reached a crescendo and Erin and James drove me up to the University of Utah’s Emergency Room. I was administered several doses of morphine to control the pain, and was given a fetanyl (sp?) patch, which works by releasing small doses of the narcotic into your system over the course of three days.

The patch was a temporary solution, but I see it as only that. It’s very difficult to be so ‘out of it,’ much more than I’ve ever been. It makes me unable to focus, concentrate or even sit still. We agreed with our doctors yesterday morning during my weekly check-up that this was in the ‘temporary fix’ category. Instead, my doctors are trying desperately to get to the bottom of this mysterious pain. They checked me back into the hospital with the intent of keeping me here until some answers are worked through. It’s important not only for my health and well-being, but because I am unable to start my next round of chemotherapy (which I would like to start as soon as possible) while my body is in jeopardy.

Right now, we have few answers. I should be meeting with a group of Gastrointestinal doctors today to run some more in depth tests. Hopefully something will come out of it all. In the meantime, I’m praying for health, for this suffering to leave and for the ability to get a little ‘normalcy’ back into my routine.

We’ll keep you updated as we hear anything new.

Judd